AIBU

There is an occasionally hilarious series of threads on Mumsnet where fraught mothers pose non life changing questions to the ether and get a range of responses from the downright nasty to the knicker-wettingly funny. The thread is known as AIBU, or “Am I Being Unreasonable”. Since my possible U doesn’t fit in the children category, and since I’m mainly a silent stalker type on Mumsnet, I thought I’d pose my question to my readership of me (and you, if you exist) to ponder. 

AIBU to expect the Auld Haggis to change her clothes occasionally at the ripe old age of 96?  And I mean ripe. 

Hubs always jokes that I should be washing her knickers, and my delightful friend Hendo always asks if I’ve left her ring squeaky clean (sorry). In fact, she is not too bad at personal hygiene, and Hubs has promised that the moment he has to do anything too “intimate” he’ll be sticking her in a home faster than she can descend the stairs. (Watch this space….)

I do periodically grab everything I can find in her room that’s washable and bundle it in the machine with an extra tablet for good measure.  However. The dementia (or Alzheimer’s – I’m none the wiser as to which is affecting her more) has really got a firm grip on her now and she seems to have forgotten that she even HAS any other clothes, despite the fact that I regularly leave outfits on her chair for her. 

Maybe that’s a question for the doctor.  Maybe part of the dementia-driven need for familiarity extends to clothing.  Maybe she just can’t be bothered. Whatever the reason, it’s far from ideal.